Thursday, October 05, 2006

Recruiting: BC vs. New England

Someone suggested that I take a look at BC recruiting in the context of Al Skinner and his staff's failure to land many of the top home grown prospects. Clearly, there are a lot of kids who play in New England prep schools who aren't from the region and have no allegiances to New England (think guys like Jarrret Jack from Maryland or Richard Roby from California) so they are not included in this survey. Also not considered are kids from Connecticut because they grow up watching their State U. As such, this is limit to players from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hamshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Further, I am only going to look at players who played at the high-major level and A10.

Anyone who follows BC hoops closely knows Al Skinner's take on recruting local players. On a number of ocassions, Skinner has been quoted as saying that he is going to be careful when he recruits a local player because its a lot harder to sit on the bench in front of your friends and family. My interpretation of this is that he is only going to go after local kids that he is sure can play on the Big East/ACC level, whereas he might take a chance on a kid from outside the region. With this in mind, I'll go back to the high school class of 1999 (partially because pre-1999 information was hard to come by and also because Skinner's first two classes were not recruited under the greatest of circumstances), and compare the players BC signed to the best of what New England had to offer.

In '99, BC was still struggling and was not really in a position to battle the big boys for recruits. Interestingly, the most highly regarded of BC's haul was Drew Dudley who had a number of offers from the A10 and a couple from the Big East. Troy Bell chose BC over Tennessee and Xavier, but if you recall, Buzz Peterson (I think he was Tennessee's coach at the time) did not think highly enough of Bell to be on campus during his official visit. Agbai chose BC over powerhouses Columbia, Monmouth and Sienna, while Witt was an unknown German.

If I remember correctly, BC heavily recruited each of Anderson, Bonner and Robertson, and was a contender for Anderson. Matt Bonner and Tony Robertson went on to have excellent college careers, though its safe to say no BC fan would trade Robertson for Bell. Although he never lived up to expectations, I think its safe to say that we'd all trade Anderson for Dudley and/or Witt. As far as Bonner for Agbai, I'm not sure I'd do it. Bonner was (is) obviously more talented than Agbai, but Uka was BCs emotional leader for five years and I wouldn't trade that for the additional production Bonner provided.

The class of '00 was the one that helped BC turn the corner, well at least Ryan Sidney. For some reason, Udo was only a player when he had Bulgaria written across his chest (remembe the 35 he dropped on Canada in the World University Games), and while Bryant was good for a few moonballs three-pointers a game, he was horribly limited in his abilities. Even with the shortcomings of Udo and AB, when Ryan Sidney had his head screwed on right, he was one hell of a basketball players, afterall, how many 6'2 guys go for 20 and 20 against Michigan?

As far as the class of '00 New Englander's go, though there were two McDonald's All Americans (the game was in Boston), the best college player was the other kid. The only player that BC recruited was Neil Fingleton (yes I know he is from England so I broke my rule about home grown talent) and they lost an extended recruiting battel when the 7'5 Brit chose UNC over BC. Neither Anderson, who sat out his first year as a partial qualifier, nor Hazelton had the academics to get a serious look from BC (I am not one of those BC fans who pretends that our standards for athletes are anything like those for non-athletes, but BC does require more than most schools). Anderson put together a good career at UMass, while Fingleton succumbed to injuries and Hazelton succumbed to a lack of talent.

In '01, BC signed what would turn out to be a three year starter and an energizer/defender off the bench and both had solid though unspectacular careers at the Heights. Oh yeah, there was also Das Big Man (my favorite nickname in recent BC history). Considering that there was not a single high major player other than Watson from a New England state other than Connecticut, I can say that BC spanked New England's @$$ in this recruiting class.

[ASIDE: It was an excellent year in Connecticut as the state produced Marcus Cox (UConn), Ryan Gomes (PC), Mark Konecny (Syracuse) and Rob Sanders (PC).]

The class of '02 was a good one for New England, but a great one for BC. Its funny that as far as recruiting rankings go, Johnnie Jackson was BC's top signee, but the other two wound up being four year starters. I could say a lot about the underappreciated Hinnant and the All American Smith, but anyone reading this is aware of all of that.

In terms of the players New England produced, it was a good class, even in BCs eyes. Though BC never make a play for Butler, they went hard after Al-Kaleem, Caner-Medley, Francis and Strickland, and was in the final two for Al-Kaleem, Caner Medley and Francis. Unfortunately for this New England class, for the most part they were not able to live up to expectations (see a pattern developing?). Al-Kaleem left Florida after a year never to be heard from again, Francis injured his back as a sophomore and was never the same player, Butler is what BC though he was, SOFT, and Stickland, though an adequate college PG, simply did not become the player expected. Conversely, Caner-Medley was a much better college player than expected and had a fine career in College Park. [ASIDE: Of the New Englander's discussed in this blog entry, Nik Caner-Medley is my #2 biggest regret that BC missed on.]

BC vs. New England - BC

High School Class of 2003BC signed: Jared Dudley, Devon Evertsen (transferred to Fordham then off the map), Steve Hailey (signed with Northeastern, but now in the ABA) and Sean Marshall New Englanders: Will Blalock (Iowa State), Dwight Brewington (Providence, tansferred to Liberty), Mike Jones (Maryland), Demetris Nichols (Syracuse), Courtney Sims (Michigan) and Nick Stafford (Dayton)

The BC class of '03 has two players who will finish their BC career having started every single game they played in at the Heights, and two guys who wasted their opportunities. Jared Dudley is simply an amazing basketball player. He is neither the quickest nor most athletic, not a great shooter or defender, but at the end of every game, he's filled the stat sheet and contained the guy he's guarding. When all is said and done, Dudley will be one of the top five scorers in BC history. Sean Marshall, though much maligned by BC fans, has put together a very solid career for himself.

Of the New England classes considered, this is by far the best, partially its depth. While no one has had the career that Jared Dudley has, there is just no getting around that all of them have been significant contributors at their respective schools. Unfortunately for BC, though this New England class was talented, grades prevented Skinner from purusing a number of them, namely Blalock, Brewington, Nichols and Stafford. BC entered the Jones recruitment late, and although he gave BC a serious look, there was just too much ground that BC couldn't make up. The player in this class that BC really wanted was Sims, and for a while, it looked like BC would get him. As I hear it, someone was in Sims' ear about BC not being the place for a black kid and that allowed Tommy Amaker (one of the worst coaches in the history of basketball coaches) to sneak in and steal him. Without a doubt, Courtney Sims is the one kid discussed herein that I wish had come to BC. I truely believe BC would have won last year's national championship with him on the team.

Though no member of BC's class of '04 has had a truly substantial career to this point, the New England class was simply not very talented. Yes, BC offered a scholarship to Luke Bonner, but I doubt that there are many BC fans who would take young Mr. Bonner over either the Maneater or the Fly Swatta.

Considering that this class is only entering its second year of college, its too early to rate, but there appears to be some stars in the making both from BC (Rice and Haynes) and New England (Adrien and Anderson). At the time of his recruitment, I was a bit disappointed that BC was not a more serious player for Degand, but considering what we have in Rice, I'll take that trade anyday. I know that BC would have loved to have landed Adrien, but they dragged their feet a bit in his recruitment. Anderson is a good player, but after six years of high school, he still didn't have the academics to get into BC.

BC vs. New England - advantage New England

In undertaking this exercise, I noticed an interesting trend, there is not a single class where the entire class stayed at BC, just as there is not a single New England class where every player stayed at his original school. Unfortunately, its just the nature of the beast that is college basketball.

All in all, I think this exercise disspells the myth that BC needs to keep more top talent home. With only a few exceptions (namelyMatt Bonner in '99, Nik Caner-Medley in '02 and Courtney Sims in '03), in each year that BC missed on a New England player who could get into BC and that BC wanted, they got a player at that position who had as good, if not better, a college career: Troy Bell vs. Tony Robertson, Uka Agbai vs. Leland Anderson, Craig Smith vs. Torin Francis (though I would not have minded seeing them play together), Louis Hinnant vs. Marshall Strickland, Jared Dudley vs. Demetris Nichols, Sean Marshall vs. Mike Jones, Sean Williams vs. Luke Bonner.

I am sure that I may have missed a player or two from New England, but please, don't bring up any walk-ons, low major players, New England transplants or any of the like. Okay, I'm ready to defend myself...BRING IT.

How about this past recruiting year when we lost the two kids from Newton North to Wake and BU (by way of Providence, so maybe not a high-major guy)? But I thought we had Gurley locked up. He can supposedly light it.

Skept, I didn't look at the class of 2006 because they have not played a college game yet. In any event, Gurley is a player, but BC never had him locked up or close to it. I liked our chances, but Wake led for a long time. As far as Lowe, BC never showed anything more than a passing interest in him.

I wasn't criticizing the analysis at all. Dug it actually. I just remembered a recent local guy (Gurley) whose leaving really stuck in my craw. Totally agree with you on Sims. He's basically what I wanted Blair to be, and by most accounts, that ain't happening. I love next year's class, but we really need a true point for the future.

You say we would have won with Sims Aside from all of the potential conflicts that could have created, would we have signed Dudley if we had Sims? I think not, given that we only signed Duds after Coleman left. And I doubt Duds would have prepped a year just for BC.

Recplex, the 03-04 team only had 10 scholarhsip players, so even with Sims, there would have been a scholarhsip available for Dudley. You have to recall, that Dan Coleman committed to BC in May, during his junior year of HS, and BC continued to pursue Sims after that. BC viewed Coleman as a 3/4 combo and Sims a 5. So BC would have taken both Colemand and Sims, and when Coleman got homesick, they still would have had room for Dudley.

Sims' presence would have had an effect on John Oates and Sean Williams the following year.

Great analysis. Being of the Roberts Center era, it is an interesting discussion to entertain. It used to be we couldn't recruit anyone from outside of New England! Of course, we still lost the big boys to other schools! I was at a game that Patrick Ewing attended as a senior at Cambridge R&L and the place went nuts. I was also there when he was a freshman at GU - and the palce went nuts on him! And then there was Rumeal Robinson, another CR&L guy - Gary Williams recruited him like mad, lost him to Michigan and then went to OSU and left BC with no incoming recruits!

i meant 2002, not 2004, and you mentioned francis so my mistake, but you are forgetting a player who is currently playing for the new jersey nets and was a first round pick and all big-12 selection in 2005 in antione wright

Because he spent four years at LA, I consider Antoine, but his inclusion goes against my New England born and bred rule. He grew up in Cali, and though he was not a one or two year New England prepster, I decided not to include him. I do admit though that if AW is included in the NE class of 2002, its at least a Push with BC.

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